Shoup Road Culvert Replacement ProjectLast year, with the heavy rains in Black Forest, several locations along Shoup Road flooded, said Andre Brackin, El Paso County engineer. ìWith water overtopping the road to such extent, we had to close the road in a number of locations,î Brackin said. ìWe have a project (the Shoup Road Culvert Replacement Project) that is going to be starting up in the next several weeks to install a battery of culverts in those locations to prevent that (overtopping) from happening again.îThe El Paso County Board of County Commissioners approved both temporary and permanent easements in three locations at their March meeting. ìWe have to get temporary easements and permanent easements from the property owners,î Brackin said. ìThe county bought them (the easements) from the property owner to keep that culvert within the easement.îFor the temporary easement in this case, Brackin said the county will build a slope and extend it out so they can then extend the culvert. ìThis allows us to do the work on the private property and when itís done and we donít need to be there anymore, that property will remain private property,î he said. He likened it to renting the property to do the work on it.The permanent easement is needed to maintain the easement as a whole, which is why the county obtains both temporary easements and permanent easements up front from the property owners, Brackin said.Minibelly Greenhouse DevelopmentThe BOCC heard a request in March from the Black Forest Mission to build a greenhouse greater than 1 acre in size. The parcel on which the greenhouse would be built is zoned residential rural and is located at 4135 Shoup Road, within the boundaries of the Black Forest Preservation Plan.The original configuration of the special use request was for one greenhouse structure measuring about 51,834 square feet and about 15 feet in height. An amended request will be presented that will propose three smaller greenhouses measuring 22,464, 14,410 and 14,400 square feet and 15 feet in height on different lots, combining two lots to make the proposed reconfiguration work.The BOCC approved the request in a 3-2 vote.
